The Traditional Plan adopted at this year’s specially-called General Conference kept the bans on same-sex weddings and ordination of gay clergy adopted in 1972.

“That’s a decision a lot of us can’t accept as being in line with our Christian faith,” said the Rev. Henry Gibson, pastor of youth, evangelism and inclusive ministries at Highlands United Methodist Church at Five Points South in Birmingham. “This is not what we think the church is supposed to be.”

They formed a group called UMCNext, and began planning a new strategy for the 2020 General Conference, the denomination’s law-making body that will meet again May 5-15 in Minneapolis.

“In May, right after the 2019 General Conference, a group of centrist, progressive, American Methodists invited 10 folks from every annual conference in the country to discuss where we are,” said the Rev. Brian Erickson, senior pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Homewood, who took part in the meeting in Kansas City, along with Gibson and others. “We agreed the Traditional Plan was not in best interest of the church.”

The North Alabama group affiliated with the UMCNext proposal met Thursday night at Canterbury United Methodist Church in Mountain Brook to discuss their proposal that was released nationally this past week. They held a similar meeting Sunday in Huntsville to discuss the proposal.

“The main focus is creating fellowship and support so whatever comes next, so we know where to look for support,” Gibson said.

The UMCNext proposal will be among several that will be submitted as legislation for the 2020 meeting, Erickson said.

“A number of plans have been put forth, including from some conversational groups,” Erickson said.

“It’s a time to encourage and listen to one another - a lot of the folks that will be there tonight, they’re not sure there’s a place for them in the larger church," Erickson said.

“For those who believe it’s past-time for LBGTQ inclusion in the church, they feel lonely in their churches,” he said. “The thing that unites us, in addition to Jesus, is frustration. We will have the most regressive inclusion policy that the church has ever had. That doesn’t feel like the right direction for the church. I want a church where everybody is welcome.”

The Traditional Plan set in motion an option for “graceful exit,” that will allow dissenting churches to ask permission to leave the denomination and take their property with them.

“Some of form of splitting is going to happen,” Erickson said. “There’s a lot of pain about that.”

Although U.S. United Methodists generally favor more welcoming LGBTQ policies, the growing African and Asian church has voted for sticking with the traditional stance of the Book of Discipline, the church’s rule book.

That tilts the overall balance towards the traditionalist stance.

“It’s a narrow margin, but it probably still leans traditionalist,” Erickson said.

“Nobody’s feeling like winners and losers," he said. "They are heartbroken too. Like all mainline churches, we’re facing a lot of challenges, more than our disagreements.”

But everyone agrees there’s a breaking point. “It’s a really rough family meeting,” Erickson said. “There’s the realization that something’s got to change. Even if there’s a split, we want to model Christian community. Right now, we just look like Congress – a Congress that sings hymns.”